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Torrential rains have left at least seven people dead and three others missing in southeastern China, state media said Tuesday, raising the death toll from a tropical storm to 22.

Kim Jong Un.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. China started the year with a broadside against U.S. defense contractors, responding to recently ramped-up Taiwan arms sales by the Biden administration and laying down a fresh warning to President-elect Donald Trump of tools Beijing can use to protect national interests.

Kim Yong-hyun over his alleged role in President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law on Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency said. Yoon survived an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday, prompted by his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, but the leader of his own party said he will be effectively excluded from his duties before eventually stepping down. Ruling Party leader Han Dong-hoon plans to meet with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Sunday morning.

Kim Jong Un vowed his country will «invariably support» Russia's war in Ukraine as he met Russia's defense chief, the North's state media reported Saturday. A Russia military delegation led by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday, amid growing international concern about the two countries' expanding cooperation after North Korea sent thousands of troops to Russia last month. The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and Belousov reached «a satisfactory consensus» on boosting strategic partnership and defending each country's sovereignty, security interests and international justice in the face of the rapidly-changing international security environments in a Friday meeting.

North Korea said Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised successful tests of two types of missiles — one designed to carry a «super-large conventional warhead» and the other likely for a nuclear warhead, as he ordered officials to bolster up his country's military capabilities to repel U.S.-led threats. The tests were apparent references to the multiple missile launches that neighboring countries said North Korea performed off its east coast on Wednesday, extending its run of weapons display as confrontations with the U.S. and South Korea escalate. The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim oversaw the launch of the country's newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile tipped with a dummy «4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead.» It said the test-firing was meant to verify an ability to accurately hit a 320 kilometer (200 mile)-range target, suggesting it's a weapon aimed at striking sites in South Korea.

Kim Jong Un supervised a demonstration of new exploding drones designed to crash into targets, state media said Monday, as the U.S. and South Korea engage in joint military drills. North Korean test photos showed a white drone with X-shaped tails and wings supposedly crashing into and destroying a target resembling South Korea's main K-2 battle tank. Most combat drones stand off from targets and fire missiles. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday's test involved various types of drones built to fly different ranges to attack enemy targets on land and sea and flew along various routes before accurately hitting test targets. After the test, Kim pledged to spur the development of drones that explode on impact, conduct reconnaissance or attack targets underwater to boost his country's war readiness, saying the North's military should be equipped with advanced drones «as early as possible,» KCNA said.

North Korea said Thursday it had successfully tested a multiwarhead missile, a sophisticated weapon coveted by leader Kim Jong Un to overwhelm missile defenses in the continental United States. The statement contradicted South Korea's assessment of a failed launch Wednesday of a different type of weapon. The launch tested the separation and guidance control of individual mobile warheads to ensure the capability of the Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. The separated mobile warheads «were guided correctly to the three coordinate targets» and a decoy that separated from the missile was verified by radar, it said. It was North Korea's first known launch event related to the development of a multiwarhead missile, though outside experts believe it was a preliminary test.

North Korea flew hundreds of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in one of its most bizarre provocations against its rival in years, prompting the South's military to mobilise chemical and explosive response teams to recover objects and debris in different parts of the country. The ballooning campaign came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his military scientists to overcome a failed satellite launch and continue developing space-based reconnaissance capabilities, which he described as crucial for countering U.S. and South Korean military activities, state media said Wednesday. In his first public comments about the launch failure, Kim also warned of unspecified «stern» action against South Korea over an exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border hours before North Korea's failed launch on Monday. In a speech Tuesday, Kim called the South Korean response «hysterical insanity» and «a very dangerous provocation that cannot be ignored,» the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.

North Korea will equip its military with a new 240mm multiple rocket launcher starting this year, state media said Saturday, adding a «significant change» for the army's artillery combat capabilities was under way. Leader Kim Jong Un on Friday oversaw a live-fire test of the «technically updated» rocket system, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said. The announcement comes as analysts say the nuclear-armed North could be testing and ramping up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Yoav Gallant said Wednesday without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border. «Many forces are deployed on the border and IDF (army) forces are carrying out offensive action currently throughout southern Lebanon,» Gallant said in a statement, also claiming that «half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated» in months of violence. «The other half are in hiding and abandoning the field to IDF operations,» he added without giving a specific number.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says upcoming U.S.-China talks will tackle a top Biden administration complaint that Beijing’s economic model and trade practices put American companies and workers at an unfair competitive disadvantage

China agreed to hold talks that will address a key American complaint about China's economic model, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Saturday on the second day of an official visit to China. The two sides will hold «intensive exchanges» on more balanced economic growth, according to a U.S. statement issued after Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held extended meetings over two days in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Hezbollah targets in northeast Lebanon's Hermel area on Tuesday, the deepest raid since cross-border hostilities erupted in October with the Iran-backed group over the Israel-Hamas war. Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas after the Gaza militants' October 7 attack, Israeli forces along the border with Lebanon have exchanged near-daily fire with the powerful Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah. The group says it is acting in support of its ally Hamas, while Israel has also targeted Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Lebanon, including with strikes deep into Lebanese territory.

K-Pop has lost one of its most legendary producers Shinsadong Tiger. The maestro, known for producing classics such as ‘Up & Down’ (for the girl group EXID, ‘Thriller’ for BtoB, ‘Mastermind’ by Beast, Apink’s ‘No No No’ etc, was found dead in his recording studio on Thursday. He was 41 years old. According to a report by The Korea Herald, the composer was found dead by an acquaintance, who travelled to his studio after the producer didn’t respond to calls.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a Russian-made luxury limousine for his personal use in a sign of their special relationship

The former chairman of the Bank of China has been indicted on bribery charges, adding to a long list of business and government officials who have been brought down by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s yearslong anticorruption drive

North Korea said Thursday it conducted its first flight test of a new cruise missile, as it expands its military capabilities in the face of deepening tensions with the United States and neighbours. The report in state media came a day after South Korea's military said it detected the North firing several cruise missiles into waters off its western coast. The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide more specific assessments, including the number of missiles fired or their flight characteristics.

Lebanon's Hezbollah group says top Hamas official Saleh Arouri was killed on Tuesday in an explosion in a southern Beirut suburb. Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, had headed the group's presence in the West Bank. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on October 7. Israeli officials declined to comment.

American electric automaker Tesla’s plans to produce energy-storage batteries in China are moving forward with a signing ceremony for the land acquisition for a new factory in Shanghai

earthquake in a mountainous region in northwestern China, the country's state media reported on Tuesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said that 100 people died in the province of Gansu and another 11 in the neighboring province of Qinghai in the quake, which occurred just before midnight on Monday.